FEDERACION DE ASOCIACIONES PROTECTORAS Y DE DEFENSA ANIMAL DE LA COMUNIDAD DE MADRID
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FEDERACION DE ASOCIACIONES PROTECTORAS Y DE DEFENSA ANIMAL DE LA COMUNIDAD DE MADRID |
FOLLOWING A COURT ORDER, 50 PODENCOS HAVE BEEN RESCUED IN THE LOCATION OF ES CUBELLS (IBIZA) THANKS TO THE COORDINATED ACTION OF THE SAN JOSÉ LOCAL GOVERNMENT, LOCAL POLICE, SEPRONA (CIVIL GUARD BODY DEVOTED TO ANIMALS AND ENVIRONMENT) AND FAPA (REGIONAL COMMUNITY OF MADRID’S ANIMAL WELFARE JOINT ASSOCIATIONS) Last Thursday June 7th a rescue team composed by 11 volunteers from ALBA, AMNISTIA ANIMAL Madrid and ANAA, taking with them four vans, travelled to Es Cubells (Ibiza) in order to coordinate the rescue of some 80 podencos belonging to Bartolomé M.R. The animals were always wandering around the area without health control whatsoever, and used to walk along the road sometimes causing traffic accidents
A request for help reached AMNISTIA ANIMAL. The situation was urgent: 80 podencos had to be rescued – they were sick, injured, suffered from sarna, and the puppies were underfed. After some meetings with the San José Local Government, the rescue team composed by volunteers from ALBA, AMNISTÍA ANIMAL Madrid and ANAA started the operation. At 8am of Friday 8th the operation started. Members of the local police, Seprona, veterinarians from the Consell and FAPA went to Bartolomé’s house, just to find that this man (accused of possible animal mistreatment) had run away taking with him most of the animals. A member of his family told us that someone had called him to say “Watch out, they are coming for your dogs!” so he escaped to the hills carrying food for 3 days. Obviously someone had passed the information onto this person.
This made the rescue of the animals much more complicated. The rescue team started working swiftly by placing trap cages all over the area and having loaded sleeping dart guns at hand. As a result, 10 dogs were caught along Friday morning. The same day, around 9pm Bartolo was found in the hills by a group of local police and FAPA members. He was accompanied by some 30 dogs and carried a dead rabbit in his hand. He was taken to his house but the dogs could not be caught, so the FAPA volunteers had to spend the whole night at Bartolo’s, catching the dogs as they gradually came down the hills. For 35 hours the rescue team stayed at Bartolo’s. They worked in shifts so all of them could have some rest at the hotel booked by the Town Hall for them. Members of the local police were present at all times in order to guarantee the volunteers’ safety as in previous occasions Bartolo had not hesitated to threaten with his riffle. The dogs were taken to Madrid and fostered by ALBA and ANAA. Two of them had to be admitted to an emergency hospital due to their extremely weak state. Now there is a long task ahead: to help these poor dogs (underfed, suffering from scabies, full of ticks and fleas and scared to death) recover themselves.
The most important thing right now is to keep denouncing this situation in order to put an end to the dramatic situation these dogs find themselves in. During the long hours spent at Bartolo’s we had the chance to speak to him. He said that, if we took all his dogs with us, all his friends would give him 1 podenco each – his goal was to have 100 dogs again and he would not stop until he got it. The FAPA will go back to Ibiza shortly in order to try and rescue all the dogs, and also to look for a solucion to this problem in conjunction with the local government so Bartolo never has so many animals again. However this means a huge economic burden (volunteers’ trip and board & accomodation expenses, as well as the cost of the vans) which means we have to ask for donations in order to proceed with the trip. YOU CAN HELP US TO SAVE THESE ANIMALS – ONLY WITH ENOUGH FINANCIAL SUPPORT WE WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE OUR ACTION. YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DONATION AT:
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